All He Knew eBook

CHAPTER VIII.

Eleanor Prency was the handsomest girl in all Bruceton.
Indeed, she so far distanced all other girls in brilliancy
and manners, as well as in good looks, that no other
young woman thought of being jealous of her.
Among her sex she occupied the position of a peerless
horse or athlete among sporting men; she was “barred”
whenever comparisons were made.

As she was an only child, she was especially dear
to her parents, who had bestowed upon her every advantage
which their means, intelligence, and social standing
could supply, and she had availed herself of all of
them apparently to the fullest extent. She was
not lacking in affection, sense, self-control, and
a number of virtues which some girls entirely satisfactory
to their parents possessed in less measure.

Nevertheless the judge and his wife were deeply anxious
about their daughter’s future. She was
good—­as girls go; she attended regularly
the church of which the family, including herself,
were members; she had no bad habits or bad tastes;
her associates were carefully selected; and yet the
judge and his wife spent many hours, which should
have been devoted to sleep, in endeavoring to forecast
her future.

It was all a matter of heredity. At middle age
the judge and his wife were fully deserving of the
high esteem in which they were held by the entire
community. They were an honest, honorable, Christian
couple, living fully up to the professions they made.
In their youthful days they had been different—­in
some respects. Well off, handsome, and brilliant,
they had both been among the most persistent and successful
of pleasure-seekers. Reviewing those days, Mrs.
Prency could say that utter selfishness and self-love
had been her deepest sins. Her husband, looking
back at his own life, could truthfully say the same,
but the details were different. He had looked
upon the wine-cup and every other receptacle in which
stimulants were ever served. He had tried every
game of chance and gone through all other operations
collectively known as “sowing one’s wild
oats.” Respect for his wife caused him to
break from all his bad habits and associations, at
first haltingly and with many relapses, but afterwards
by joining the church and conforming his life to his
faith. But the inheritance of the child was from
her parents, as they were, not as they afterwards
became.

Therefore the couple became anxious anew when they
discovered that their daughter had become very fond
of Reynolds Bartram, for the young man forcibly reminded
both of them of the judge himself in his early days,
yet without Prency’s strong and natural basis
of character, while the daughter was entirely devoted
to the pleasures of the day. If Bartram were
to remain as he was, and his self-satisfaction to continue
so strong as to be manifest upon all occasions and
in all circumstances they foresaw a miserable life
for their daughter. Hence Mrs. Prency’s
solicitude about young Bartram.